Creating A Concept Album - tips, thoughts, general discussion

[Drew]

Alright well here goes nothin guys.

For starters, the tone that I am going for and the atomshere that I'm trying to set is a cross between ancient civilizations and future-tech. I use the electronics in my songs to compliment the raw and primitive sounding instruments, trying to display the atmosphere of ancient vs futuristic.

So then theres this guy...

The main character of the album is a man that has lost everything. Parts of songs will give way clues and hints to what exactly it is that has devastated this individual, however it is not the great sadness inside of the man that drives the story.

Chosen by beings of a higher power (Alex Kineval this one is for you) lets not call them aliens...or gods. Just beings that exist that have been watching over us and see our planet as a golden opportunity that has been continuously beaten to death. They choose the man to be their auxillary; a empowered weapon fueled with hatred.

They see this person has nothing left to lose and finally give him the power to destroy the human race.

However, given the greed of man...This individual wishes to indulge in his new godlike power to bring back everything he has lost. Although, what he uncovers is that everything that he had lost was never by coincidence, which in turn drives the individual insane with rage.

Enraged at the beings for what they have done to him, he begins to devise a plan to destroy the very powers that gave him immortality.

Well guys...thats my shitty story and right now its all I have written out and brainstormed. I always wanted to write something along the lines of supernatural beings that give mortals great strength and then have the inner struggle examined while the album progresses. It may not be the best or even most original concept but its a start i guess!

You may be aiming a little high. Do you know anyone who's ever lived through that experience?

Remember... The Wall is about a rock star with an unfaithful wife and an abusive mother, Tommy was about a deaf, dumb, and blind kid who finds salvation through pinball, The Human Equation was about a guy in a coma after a car crash, Metropolis Pt II was about someone reading about a double murder years ago and trying to figure out what the hell happened, and even that obscure Floater album I love was just about a guy searching for meaning in a world with none. This is pretty everyday stuff, and this is why it's so powerful. Even Ziltoid is just ridiculous more than it's anything else, and the absurdity is entirely the point.

If anything, focus on the inner struggle. Maybe a story about a guy unexpectedly given a chance to regain something he's lost, and then in a more mundane yet relatable context start dealing with those questions about maybe some things it's better to let go than to try to force. I think everyone canb relate to that.

If nothing else, the simpler the story, the less you have to worry about the story getting in the way of the music.

 

[Drew]

Hell, here's that Floater album, in Playlist form. It's not even CLOSE to djent. It is, however, ....ing amazing.

http://youtu.be/Ea0n5im_ZsU?list=PL759D3A5AEB0370A7

"And what will they say when you're gone?
That you conquered, that you burned like a rocket from the womb to the world,
That you ran with your colors and your flags unfurled,
And you ignited everything,
like a gasoline rain. Will they say you were insane, while their life is grey...

And all of us go down slow, and then we rise again.
Just like a tide out at sea, we lower and rise again.

And the days go by, and the nights all feel the same.
And the beast in your eyes, slowly becomes tame again,
Tame and dim."

....ing incredible.

 

[thisiswhywefight]

I've tried my hands at concept albums before and to be honest it takes a lot of creative control to put ideas across with any sort of clarity. So mad respect to anyone who can manage to do a concept album well, and there's certainly quite a few good concept albums (The Wall in particular is really great at auditory storytelling and at walking the line between being too blunt and too oblique), but I vastly prefer approaching every song as an individual lyrical work. It's far more liberating creatively.

But I like the song. Feels very punchy.

 

[Demiurge]

(concept)

I think that's a neat idea. It's almost like the Book of Job meets Faust meets a classical tragedy. If I may play with the idea:

Job has everything taken from him in what's essentially a perverse cosmic bet between God and Satan (or whatever he's referred to there), but in the end Job maintains his faith. But what would happen if Job loses his faith and is approached by Ol' Scratch (whose ruse worked perfectly) with an offer of restoration and revenge? Like any deal with the devil, it seems great at first- everything he wanted is back, but he finds can no longer enjoy or love because he is too consumed by hate. In the end, maybe sacrificing himself, he determines that he would rather die a human with his humanity than to live as a God or a Devil (the two he could no longer tell apart anyway).

 

[jinxist]

Wow. Sums up the struggle in a lot less words for what I was going for hahahaha. Great stuff man.

 

[Drew]

I think that's a neat idea. It's almost like the Book of Job meets Faust meets a classical tragedy. If I may play with the idea:

Job has everything taken from him in what's essentially a perverse cosmic bet between God and Satan (or whatever he's referred to there), but in the end Job maintains his faith. But what would happen if Job loses his faith and is approached by Ol' Scratch (whose ruse worked perfectly) with an offer of restoration and revenge? Like any deal with the devil, it seems great at first- everything he wanted is back, but he finds can no longer enjoy or love because he is too consumed by hate. In the end, maybe sacrificing himself, he determines that he would rather die a human with his humanity than to live as a God or a Devil (the two he could no longer tell apart anyway).

You know, that reminds me, Kamelot's The Black Halo (and, to a lesser extent, Epica) need to be added to this list - their take on the story of Faust.

 

[Aion]

That's a lot of story to fit into one album. Which isn't a bad thing, but to do it justice is going to be a huge challenge. Things that kind of have a similar scope to them are Ayreon's 1011001, Coheed and Cambria's Afterman (Ascension and Descesnion), Mastodon's Crack the Skye, Pain of Salvation's BE, and Rush's Cygnus X1 Book 1 & 2.

Drew's right in that you need to make them something people can relate to. Here's what I think these albums work.

1011001: It's about god-like aliens, but the main focus is on how technology affects emotions. It's a very human, very small idea that holds down a huge story.

Afterman: At it's heart it is a simple love story. Meanwhile it's set up so that it can tell the stories of many different people and those stories are pretty straightforward normal stuff. The setup is weird as hell (guy flies into some space thing that's full of souls) but all of the weirdness is essentially background while characters drive the action.

Crack the Skye: This has one of the strangest stories of all time. It involves astral projection, Rasputin, and worm holes. But really it's all an elaborate metaphor for the experiences of Dailor following his sister's suicide and reflecting on it years later. Ultimately a weird as hell story is grounded very strongly in personal experience.

BE: Probably the one of these that does the least to break things down and make stuff relatable. For the most part it pulls away from following any single character and really just allows the story to be told in very large strokes. There are a number of stories that are told, but most are told in less than three songs. It is more an exploration of an idea, the story is in the background. If you've ever read the Martian Chronicles (one of the best sci-fi books ever) there's a similar narrative approach. Each story is related, but focuses on its own idea and could stand on its own outside of the rest of the story.

Cygnus X1 Books 1 & 2: The connection between the two almost doesn't matter. X1 really focuses on exploration and leaving home. X2 focuses on the idea of emotions vs logic and that's really it. Straightforward, and it doesn't get super specific in terms of story.


So pretty much we have two ways to approach a large story. If you're story has a really vast focus you keep it broad. Don't try and get down and dirty with details, focus on the big picture. Or take a few characters (or even one character) and really zoom in on them and their experience. The first let's the story drive the action. The second puts "ordinary," people in extraordinary situation and focuses on those people.

 

[ElRay]

Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years (not that I expect you to like this)

+rep Warm Fuzzies For the Tow Waits

 

[ElRay]

Pink Floyd - The Wall (of course)
Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt 2 - Scenes from a Memory
Floater - Angels in the Flesh and Devils in the Bone (one of my favorites, and an almost unknown band)
pretty much the entire discography by The Hold Steady, but "Separation Sunday" is sort of the glue that holds it all together.
The Who - Tommy
Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years (not that I expect you to like this)

Quadrophenia by The Who (story can be hard to follow but the music is superb)
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis
2112 by Rush (not a full concept album, but the title track is epic enough)
Days of Future Past by the Moody Blues
Coheed and Cambria's entire discography is one big concept
The Dear Hunter's discography (not Deer Hunter, different band)

Adding more to the list:

• Operation: Mindcrime by Queensrÿche
• Clockwork Angels by Rush (essentially a soundtrack for an imaginary movie that turned into a novel)
• Script for a Jester's Tear by Marillion (a bit of a hard listen in comparision to Misplaced Childhood & Clutching at Straws)
• Misplaced Childhood by Marillion (Their most accessible w/ Fish)
• Clutching at Straws by Marillion (the last album w/ Fish)
• Season's End by Marillion (1st with Steve Hogarth -- more of a "Theme" Album)

And that leads into "Concept Albums Light", aka "Theme Albums". They're not operatic and tell a story, but they're still in the same vein. Most of Rush's later albums (Moving Pictures, Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, Test for Echo, Snakes & Arrows) are collections of songs that explore a common theme. Peter Gabriel's solo stuff often fits this bill, as well as (dare I say?) some movie soundtracks.

Rush also has individual songs across different albums that "connect":

• Fear
  • The Enemy Within (Fear, Part I) - Grace Under Pressure
  • The Weapon (Fear, Part II) - Signals
  • Witch Hunt (Fear, Part III) - Moving Pictures
• Hemmispheres
  • Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage - A Farewell to Kings
  • Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres - Hemispheres

 

[Drew]

+rep Warm Fuzzies For the Tom Waits

Tom Waits is one of my favorite musicians in ANY genre. Again, I expect most of the board to hate this, but how absolutely brilliant is this??

http://youtu.be/-GugzLSbOQE

 

[FretsOnFyre]

Jinxist, really like where you've gone with that! I'm looking forward to hearing more I'll post some about my own concept when we flesh it out and get some music down.

 

[jinxist]

Thanks man! Appreciate it! I'm starting to flesh that idea out as well, as I believe everyone was right that it is a little bit too elaborate. Still sticking with that theme though. I am also going to use this thread for giving updates on the material - and everyone else who is interested should do the same!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I'll have to come back in later and read this thread more in full (wait a minute, did I just disqualify myself from the discussion? sorta...oh well, plow ahead anyway), but a couple points:

- sounds like you're discussing rock opera, which I consider to be a subset of concept albums (rock opera == story; concept album == overarching idea tying the album together, which could be a story) -- not sure why I brought that up, just wanted to mention that there are other concept album concepts

- I suck at lyrics. I still love hearing them, so will probably follow this thread avidly. But you have to admit -- one loses all sense of concept album without lyrics, otherwise it's just music with recurring themes (Tubular Bells, etc.)

- Don't be married to the idea of telling the story in chronological order (Memento, Human Equation)

- I think you should listen to bad concept albums, that way you know what to avoid. Jeff Wayne's Spartacus comes to mind.

 

[jinxist]

Haven't really heard of the term rock opera before. Interesting! I guess if probably rather go with a concept then...operas seem complicated hahaha

 

[FretsOnFyre]

Well, what you described sounds to me like a rock opera, considering you have a pretty solid storyline

 

[Aion]

Haven't really heard of the term rock opera before. Interesting! I guess if probably rather go with a concept then...operas seem complicated hahaha

Wait, you've never heard the term Rock Opera? That's really hilarious in a cosmic sort of way. As Dusty said, they're a subset of concept album. Basically anything with a unifying theme is a concept album. If that concept is a story with characters, plot, setting, etc. then it's a rock opera.

Rock Operas:
Jesus Christ Superstar
Metropolis Pt. 2
Tommy
The Wall

Concept Albums:
Dark Side of the Moon
Animals
Victims of the Modern Age
Second Life Syndrome
Tales from a Topographic Ocean

Sometimes there can be grey area where something isn't clearly a concept album or rock opera. You could probably make the argument for the musical (but not the movie) Hair, BTBAM's Parallax as well. It has a vague story and some characters but it's more about an idea than any real narrative.

 

[jinxist]

I feel embarrassed that I didn't know that haha. Well...the more you know! It should actually help me in decided exactly what I want to achieve

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Haven't really heard of the term rock opera before. Interesting! I guess if probably rather go with a concept then...operas seem complicated hahaha

Awesome. Glad I mentioned it, then.

 

[jinxist]

The more that I paw over my original idea, the more complications i see from it being too technical of a storyline, and less of just an overall idea. I think that Dusty is right on the money with it being more akin to a Rock Opera.

Maybe one day I will revisit that idea when I am a more seasoned recording artist, but for now I think I may go back to something I started in the past.

The first time I had ever thought about doing an album of any kind I thought about centring the sound and lyrics around a sort of rise of A.I and machines becoming too smart and overpowering humanity.

This was a concept I came up with one time when I started thinking about how scary it is how fast technology is moving forward. And how ....ing scary would it be when the machines we build with our own hands end up smarter than us? As much as I love technology myself, it is disturbing how "smart" everything is now. How we are so trackable, and identifiable from the smallest things.

Not to mention how technology is actually killing us. Corrupting our planet. Its a man-made-evil. It helps us, and kills us at the same time.

The name of one of the songs I had created for this was called Neon Devil, and it essentially meant a mechanical-technologic-man-made-devil that we created and can no longer kill.

Maybe this is more in line for a concept album?

 

[Given To Fly]

I agree, technology is moving fast!
Richard Hammond drives the Porsche 918 Spyder (Series 21, Episode 5) - BBC Top Gear
Richard drives the Sesto Elemento (Series 20, Episode 5) - BBC Top Gear